The Batavia, a Dutch East India ship, struck a reef off the western coast of Australia. Some 300 survivors made it to a tiny island in the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago, where Jeronimus Cornelisz, a junior officer, took power after a vicous struggle. He ran a regime of murder, rape and torture for 3 months when helped arrived from the Dutch colony on Java. 70 of the 300 initial survivors were still alive. Cornelisz was quickly tried and executed. In 2005 Simon Leys authored “The Wreck of the Batavia.”
Links: Indonesia, Netherlands, Ship, Rape

1775 Nov 5

In southern California Indians infuriated by Spanish soldier rapes of native women attacked the mission at San Diego bludgeoning a priest to death and killing two other church workers.
Links: Spain, California, Rape

1895 Apr 13

In San Francisco a woman at the Emmanuel Baptist Church, on Bartlett St. between 22nd and 23rd, discovered the stabbed and raped body of Minnie Williams (21). Minnie was last seen with medical student Theodore Durrant the night before. Police then found the body of Blanche Dumont in the church belfry. Investigators said she had been strangled 10 days earlier. Durrant was later convicted and hanged at San Quentin in 1898. The church was demolished in 1915.
Links: USA, SF, Murder, Rape

1913 Apr 26

Mary Phagan (13) was killed at an Atlanta pencil factory. She had stopped to pick up her check on her way to Peachtree Street to see a Confederate Memorial Day Parade. Leo Frank (29), a Jewish factory manager, was falsely accused of raping and murdering the young girl. Georgia Gov. John M. Slaton later commuted Frank’s sentence to life, but a vigilante crowd dragged him out of prison and lynched him on Aug 17. In 1968 Leonard Dinnerstein authored “The Leo Frank Case.” The story is covered in the 1997 novel "The Old Religion" by David Mamet. In 1998 the musical "Parade" was produced based on the Frank lynching.
Links: GeorgiaUS, USA, Jews, Murder, Lynching, Rape

1922

In Australia Colin Campbell Ross was hanged for raping and murdering Alma Tirtschke (12) and dumping her body in an alley in 1921. In 2008 the city of Melbourne posthumously pardoned him for the crime after new tests found crucial evidence against him was flawed.
Links: Australia, Murder, Rape

In Alabama 9 young black men, arrested at Paint Rock after riding a freight train, were taken to Scottsboro. Victoria Price (21) and Ruby Bates (17), who had worked as prostitutes in Huntsville, were also found on the train dressed as boys. The 9 men were soon charged with raping the 2 white woman, while riding on the freight train.
Links: USA, Black History, Alabama, Rape

1931 Mar 30

In Scottsboro, Ala., 9 young black men were indicted for rape. By the end of April all were tried, convicted and sentenced to death, except for one age 13, who was sentenced to life in prison. The US Supreme Court later overturned the convictions, but they were convicted at a 2nd trial, even though one of the accused said no rape had occurred. Five convictions were overturned in 1937 after one alleged victim recanted her story. Clarence Norris received a pardon before his death in 1976. In 2013 Alabama’s parole board approved posthumous pardons for the “Scottsboro Boys” during a hearing for three black men whose convictions were never overturned.
Links: USA, Black History, Alabama, Rape

Japanese troops conquered and plundered Nanjing. Japan established a puppet Chinese government at Peking, now called Beijing. In 1997 Iris Chang (1968-2004) authored "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of WW II."
Links: China, Rape

1937 Dec1937 Jan

John Rabe (1882-1950), a German businessman for Siemens living in China, recorded the 2-month terror of the Japanese "Rape of Nanking" in his diary. The Japanese sacked and pillaged the city. They raped at least 20,000 women and killed at least 50,000 people. Rabe established a neutral safe zone for hundreds of thousands of Chinese refugees. Noncombatant deaths may have reached 300,000. Reporter Tillman Durdin (d.1998 at 91) filed reports for the New York times.
Links: China, Rape

1937 Dec1937 Feb

In the Japanese "Rape of Nanjing" more than 200,000 people were killed. Japanese soldiers raped and killed tens of thousands of Chinese women during their invasion of China. [photo from Nanjing] In 1997 Iris Chang (29) published "The Rape of Nanking: the Forgotten Holocaust of world War II." The largest execution of prisoners took place north of Nanking near Mufu Mountain where 57,000 civilians and soldiers were gunned down.
Links: China, Rape

1945 Apr 13

Vienna fell to Soviet troops. In the three weeks after Soviet troops took Vienna some 87,000 women were reported to have been raped.
Links: Austria, Russia, USSR, Rape

1945 Aug 15

A riot ensued in San Francisco while the city was celebrating the end of WW II. Three days of rioting left 13 dead, at least six women raped and over 1,000 people injured. 90 percent of the revelers were said to be young Navy enlistees who had not served overseas.
Links: USA, SF, Mad Crowd, Rape

Steven Truscott (14) was convicted for the rape and strangling death of 12-year-old school friend Lynne Harper, becoming Canada's youngest death-row inmate. His sentence was commuted to life in prison, and he was quietly released after 10 years behind bars. Truscott always insisted he was innocent and sough complete exoneration in 2007.
Links: Canada, Kids, Rape

1961 Apr 13

US Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder of an Austrian girl (11) in 1955.
Links: USA, Rape

1964 Jan

Mary Sullivan (19) was raped and strangled in her Boston apartment. In 2001 there was evidence that she was not killed by Albert DeSalvo (d.1973), the suspected Boston Strangler. In 2013 DNA evidence linked DeSalvo to Sullivan’s slaying.
Links: USA, Murder, Rape, Massacre

1968 Mar 29

In SF Linda Harmon (14) was raped and stabbed to death while babysitting for a neighbor in Visitacion Valley. In late 2003 police matched DNA evidence to William Speer, who was undergoing therapy for sexually violent tendencies at an Arizona mental hospital.

In Austria a girl (16) at the state-run home in Tyrol province was reportedly raped by two soldiers and three others defecated on her. She and four other girls were picked out for the soldiers by a female orderly. In 2012 a military commission was been set up to investigate the allegations.
Links: Austria, Rape

TimelinesA text-based site.

1969

In Saskatoon, Canada, David Milgaard (16) was convicted for the murder and rape of Gail Miller. He was in prison for 23 years until DNA tests proved that the crime was done by Larry Fisher, a multiple rapist. His story was later told by Peter Edwards and Joyce Milgaard, David's mother in the book "A Mother's Story."
Links: Canada, Murder, DNA, Rape

1971 May 18

The last victim of Wayne Boden (1948-2006), Canadian serial killer and rapist, was found. He earned the nickname "the Vampire Rapist" because he had the penchant of biting the breasts of his victims.
Links: Canada, Murder, Rape

1972 Dec 22

Diana Sue Sylvester (22) was raped and killed in the SF Sunset District after walking home from UCSF. In 2006 John Puckett (72), a retired carpet installer in Stockton, was arrested for the murder based on DNA evidence. In 2008 Puckett (74) was convicted of first-degree murder.
Links: USA, SF, Murder, DNA, Rape

1974 Feb 2

In Fort Myers, Florida, Cynthia Nadeau was raped and her boyfriend Terry Milroy was murdered. Delbert Tibbs (1939-1974) was soon after arrested in Ocala, Fl., for the rape and murder. In December Tibbs was falsely convicted and sentenced to death. In 1976 a judge reveiewed the case and found no evidence to support the conviction. Tibbs was released in 1977.
Links: USA, Murder, Florida, Rape

1974 Nov 8

Singer Connie Francis (b.1938) was raped in her hotel room after a concert at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island, NY.
Links: USA, Pop&Rock, Rape

In Pacifica, Ca., the body of Ronnie Cascio (18) was discovered at the Sharp Park Golf Course. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 30 times. Over the next few months four more young women were found murdered, Tanya Blackwell (14) of Pacifica; Paula Baxter (17) of Millbrae; Denise Lampe (19) of Broadmoor; and Carol Lee Booth (26) of South San Francisco. In 2014 police linked the Feb 24, 1976, murder of Reno resident Michelle Mitchell (19) to the Bay Area murders. In 1979 Cathy Woods, a psychiatric patient at the Louisiana State Univ. Medical Center, told staff that she had killed a girl named Michelle in Reno. Woods was ultimately convicted of murder. In 2014 DNA evidence linked Rodney Halbower (66), an inmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary, to the murder of Mitchell and 5 women in the SF Bay Area. Woods was released to her family.
Links: USA, Murder, Nevada, SF Bay Area, Rape

1976 Feb 15

In Los Angeles Elizabeth McKeown (67) was beaten, raped and strangled. A young homicide detective found her body 3 days later in a car trunk. In 2009 John Floyd Thomas Jr. (72), an insurance claims adjuster, was arrested based on DNA evidence. A series of attacks stopped in 1978, the year Thomas went to prison for the rape of a Pasadena woman.

In San Francisco Jenny Read (b.1945), an Episcopal sculptor, was raped and murdered while working on a sculpture of St. John of the Cross in Potrero Hill. In 2009 police using DNA evidence arrested and charged James Lee Mayfield (63), a registered sex offender with her murder.
Links: Artist, USA, SF, Murder, Rape

1976 Jun 18

In California an assailant broke into the home of a Rancho Cordova woman, tied her hands and raped her in her bed. This was the first recorded case by the serial offender who came to be called the East Area Rapist. He was later believed responsible for 12 killings and over 45 rapes over the next 10 years. His last known crime was a murder in Irvine on May 5, 1986.
Links: USA, California, Rape

In SF the body of Wanda Baun (19), a prostitute, was found dead. She had been stabbed over 50 times. In 2007 Darrell Sweigart was convicted of 2nd degree murder after DNA evidence linked to the murder. He was already serving a 25 year to life sentence for rape and robbery.
Links: USA, SF, Murder, DNA, Robbery, Rape

1976 Oct 16

In Alabama Sheryl Lynn Payton (24) was abducted, raped and murdered. In 1977 Thomas Whisenhant (29) was convicted after he confessed to her murder and that of 2 other convenience store clerks. Whisenhant's original conviction was overturned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. He was convicted again at a retrial in 1981. On May 27, 2010, Whisenhant was executed by lethal injection.
Links: USA, Murder, Alabama, Rape

1976 Nov 22

Phillip Garrido kidnapped Katie Hall in South Lake Tahoe and drove her to Reno, where he raped her at a storage unit. Garrido was convicted in 1977 and sentenced to 50 years in prison. He was paroled in 1988. In 1991 He kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard (11) in South Lake Tahoe and kept her in Antioch, Ca., until his arrest in 2009.

Police in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, found Mary Parsh (58) and her daughter, Brenda (27), lying nude side by side on a bed at home, their hands tied behind their backs. Each had been shot in the head. In 2007 Timothy Krajcir (63), a graduate from Southern Illinois with a degree in law enforcement, confessed to their rape and murder and at least 4 more. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 1982 killing of a Southern Illinois University Carbondale student, Deborah Sheppard. and, in addition, was charged with five counts of murder and three counts of rape against women in the Cape Girardeau, Missouri, area from 1977 to 1982. In 2008, Krajcir pleaded guilty and was sentenced to another 40 years in prison for the 1978 killing of Marion resident Virginia Lee Witte.
Links: USA, Murder, Missouri, Rape

1977 Sep 9

Mary Ann Quigley (17) was killed near War Memorial Park in Santa Clara, Ca. In 2006 Richard Armand Archibeque (47) was arrested for her rape and murder based on DNA evidence. They had been classmates at Santa Clara High School.
Links: California, Murder, DNA, Rape

Lou Ellen Burleigh (21) of Walnut Creek, Ca., went missing. Roger Kibbe was later identified as a suspect confessed to her rape and murder. In 2009 Kibbe, who had become known as the I-5 strangler, was convicted of her murder and that of 5 others. In 2011 remains of Burleigh were found in a dry riverbed near Lake Berryessa.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Rape

1977

Roman Polanski, film director, was accused of drugging and raping a 13-year-old model at the home of Jack Nicholson. He pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and left the country on bail to film "Hurricane" in Tahiti, and then fled to Paris.
Links: USA, France, California, Sex, Polynesia, Film, Rape

1978 Feb 21

In Florida Karol Hurst (21) was abducted while leaving a grocery store in Leesburg. She was driven to a wooded area, beaten, raped, and shot. Her pregnant body was then dragged further into the woods. That same evening Freddie Lee Hall and an accomplice shot and killed Deputy Lonnie Coburn. Both fled the scene but were soon arrested. Hall was convicted and sentenced to death on June 27. Hall’s IQ was later said to be around 75.
Links: USA, Murder, Florida, Rape

1978 Apr 22

Cynthia Waxman (11) was raped and killed whiled playing in a field in Moraga, Ca. In 2005 DNA evidence revealed that she had been killed by Charles Jackson, a convict who died at age 64 in Folsom Prison in 2002. Jackson was linked to at least 6 other victims.
Links: California, Murder, DNA, Kids, Rape

1978 May 11

Carol Schmal (23) and Lawrence Lionberg (29) were murdered in Chicago. Four men were arrested for rape and murder and 2 of the men were sentenced to death. In 1999 Kenny Adams, Willie Rainge, Verneal Jimerson and Dennis Williams were released after a journalism class proved their innocence. The men then filed a suit and settled with Cook County for $36 million.
Links: USA, Chicago, Murder, Journalism, Rape

TimelinesA text-based site.

1978 Sep 11

Kippi Vaught and Rhonda Scheffler (17) were kidnapped from a shopping mall in Sacramento. Their bodies were found 2 days later east of town. Gerald Gallego (b.1946) and accomplice Charlene Williams (24) began a rape and murder spree that left 9 women and one young man dead. Williams served 17 years in prison. Gallego was sentenced to death but was still alive with appeals.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Rape

1978 Sep 29

Mary Vincent (15), was raped, maimed and left for dead in a canyon near Modesto, Ca. She lived and identified Lawrence Singleton as her assailant. He was convicted but released after serving 8 years of a 14 year sentence. In 1997 he was arrested for the murder of woman, Roxanne Hayes, a prostitute, in Tampa, Florida. A trial in Dec 1997 ended in a mistrial and another was set for 1998. He was sentenced to death in 1998, but died of cancer in 2001 in a Florida prison hospital.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Rape

In Dallas, Texas, Jonathan Bruce Reed attacked Wanda Jean Wadle and her roommate, Kimberly Pursley. He'd apparently entered their apartment by posing as a maintenance man. In 1979 Reed was convicted and condemned to death for the rape-slaying of Wanda Jean Wadle at her apartment. In 2009 an appeals court ruled that Reed could be freed because prosecutors improperly excluded blacks from his jury in the belief that blacks empathize with defendants.
Links: USA, Murder, Texas, Rape

1978

Amy Sue Seitz (2) was kidnapped, raped, mutilated with pliers and murdered by Theodore Frank in Ventura County, Ca. His diaries noted molestations over 20 years. Frank was sentenced to death twice but died in prison of a heart attack in 2001.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Rape

Larry Singleton was convicted by a San Diego jury on multiple counts for the 1978 rape and mutilation of Mary Vincent. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was paroled in 1987.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Rape

In Texas Johnny Penry raped and stabbed to death Pamela Mosely Carpenter (22). Penry, said to have an IQ of 51-63, was convicted of murder and faced execution in 2000. The US Supreme Court blocked the Nov. execution. The US Supreme Court overturned his death sentence in 2001 due to flawed instructions in his initial conviction.
Links: Murder, Texas, Rape

1979 Nov 1

In Oakland, Ca., Nancy Lugassy (28) was fatally shot by Harvey Heishman. She had told police that Heishman had raped her on the night they had met July. Heishman was later convicted and sentenced to death. In 2010 an appeals court upheld his murder conviction.
Links: Murder, SF Bay Area, Rape

1979 Dec 5

Teresa De Simone (22) was found strangled in her car outside the pub where she worked in Southampton, 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of London. Sean Hodgson initially confessed to the killing, but he later recanted and pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued he was a pathological liar and any confession he made was false. In 2009 Hodgson was released from prison based on DNA evidence.
Links: Britain, Murder, DNA, Rape

Pakistan introduced the Hudood ordinances, which included a clause stating that to prove rape, a woman must have at least 4 male witnesses. If the woman fails to provide proof, she herself faces the charge of adultery.
Links: Pakistan, Rape

1980 Jun 21

In Antioch, Ca., Suzanne Bombardier (14) disappeared as she babysat her nieces. Her nude body was found on June 27 floating in the San Joaquin River. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed in the heart.
Links: USA, Murder, SF Bay Area, Rape

1980 Aug 8

In Rantoul, Illinois Brianna Stickle (3) was found raped and killed. In 2012 Andre Davis (50) was released from jail after spending 32 years in jail. DNA evidence taken at the scene was found to not be his.
Links: USA, Illinois, Murder, DNA, Rape

1980 Oct 13

In northern California Anne Evelyn Alderson (26) of San Rafael was raped and shot to death on Mount Tamalpais. David Joseph Carpenter was arrested in May 1981. In 1984 he was convicted of 2 murders in Santa Cruz and sentenced to death. In 1988 he was convicted of 4 killings in Marin County and again sentenced to death.
Links: Murder, SF Bay Area, Rape

Three American nuns and a lay worker were abducted, raped and shot in San Salvador. Peasants discovered their bodies the next day and buried them. Nuns Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford, Maura Clark, and lay worker Jean Donovan were raped and shot by guardsmen. The murders occurred as the US began a 10-year $7 billion aid effort to prevent left-wing guerrillas from coming to power. Five national guardsmen were later convicted in the killings, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Links: El Salvador, Murder, Rape

1981 Jan 8

Terri Winchell (17) was beaten, raped and stabbed to death in San Joaquin County, Ca. Michael Morales (31) was convicted in the murder and was slated for execution in 2006. Morales said he was enlisted by his cousin, Ricky Ortega, who had learned that Winchell was having an affair with Ortega’s male lover. Morales' original execution date of February 21, 2006, was postponed as a result of two court-appointed anesthesiologists withdrawing from the procedure.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Rape

1981 Mar 23

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teen-age girls seek abortions. U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law making statutory rape a crime for men but not women.
Links: USA, Medical, Supreme Court, Rape

1981 Mar 29

In northern California Ellen Hansen (20), a UC Davis student, was shot to death after resisting a rape attempt at Henry Cowell Redwood State Park, near Santa Cruz. Her boyfriend was wounded but survived and later identified David Joseph Carpenter as the assailant. Carpenter was arrested in May 1981. In 1984 he was convicted of 2 murders in Santa Cruz and sentenced to death. In 1988 he was convicted of 4 killings in Marin County and again sentenced to death.
Links: USA, California, Murder, SF Bay Area, Rape

1981 May 1

Heather Scaggs (20) was reported missing. Her naked body was found on May 24 in Big Basin State Park near Santa Cruz. She had been raped and shot to death. David Joseph Carpenter, a co-worker, was arrested on May 14 1981. In 1984 he was convicted of 2 murders in Santa Cruz and sentenced to death. On May 10, 1988, a San Diego jury convicted Carpenter of first degree murder in the slayings of Richard Stowers, Cynthia Moreland, Shauna May, Diana O'Connell, and Anne Alderson. Carpenter was also pronounced guilty of raping two of the women and attempting to rape a third.
Links: USA, California, Murder, SF Bay Area, Rape